Wednesday, 30 December 2009

The “Protest Culture”

The Best Commentary is Often In the Comments Dept

Those who lean toward viewing the administration’s lapses as stemming from incompetence rather than malice[1] may find this pair of comments[2] by “cfbleachers” a useful hook on which to hang their explanation:

We (at least, those of us in the center or rightward part of the political spectrum) still expect our government to respond in a strong and reflexive manner against any declared enemy who attempts mass murder of our countrymen.

But this current administration is made up of individuals belonging to a “protest culture.” If they have a reflex, it is toward not away from, other protest cultures.

When actions by the current leadership seem incongruous to us, we must remember that they are the outcome of their own worldview. Try viewing them through the eyes of an American “Protest Culture Club” member and things will crystallize.

To be fully cognizant of the impact of each step in the process, understand that there is an even further left, lefter, leftist spot on the protest culture spectrum. Michael Moore not only views the war on terror to be a ridiculous notion, he considers our sworn enemies to be heroes. And Ward Churchill believes that the innocents who died on 9/11 to be “little Eichmanns”.

Most (not all) of those nominated or selected for positions in this administration don’t go quite that far. The “inner circle” seem to be quite content to stop at watering down the “enemy” to merely a “fellow protest culture, that, through circumstance, has us as its main target”.PC responses are not just political correctness any longer, but rather, are protest culture guidelines. Example: Protesting sometimes leads to raised emotions; occasionally some individual gets so wrapped up in “fighting the establishment” that he gets carried away and commits a violent act. But (so the thinking goes) we don’t want to condemn a whole “group” of Protest Culture participants for the acts of a tiny minority. Instead, the ones who “gets out of hand” in “expressing themselves” should be handled within the confines of policing and “keeping order”.Therefore, you don’t prepare in advance, because it is not a war. You react after the fact, like calling the police…to keep order.

And…you search for “root causes.” (Like blaming Bush, which is basically the “original sin” of the religion of Protest Culturists.) Apply this mindset to every…every…instance, where this administration said or did something that caused you to shake your head in disbelief.

And, in the future, expect more the same. If the reaction by the masses is too strong, expect lip service to what our eyes consider normal. Then, watch every action/reaction revert to precisely the same as before.

We are living under the rule of a leadershp of Protest Culture club members: This is what it looks and feels like. And if you are not a member, YOU…are more the enemy, than those who mean to kill us.

Remember, O. referred to “the alleged” perpetrator. “Alleged”??? Tell that to the passengers and the Dutchman who subdued him. “Alleged”?? In that one word the President conveyed all the subtext we need to know.

This is the difference between seeing a combatant caught in the act of guerilla warfare against us, and a “protest culture” participant engaged in an act against “the establishment”.

You would never say that an “alleged” soldier, was firing an “alleged” weapon from an “alleged” clock tower, at our men in uniform, on an “alleged” theater of operations.

When you start to “lawyer up” the defendant for his “misdemeanor” of trying to mass murder 300 or more of our countrymen, you come up with some pretty mind-bending, pretzel twisting phrases to water down the act to fit the alternate reality of the protest culture.

o-o-O-o-o

...20% of the population (or less) accounts for the vast majority of the Protest Culture. However, that 20% DOMINATES the Democratic leadership, legacy media, academia, hollywood and entertainment.

And being in a constant mental state of protest (it being their reflexive response, as opposed to, say, patriotism), explains why one would fake weather data, why one would need to “redistribute” wealth by invasive hidden tax mechanisms, why one would overhaul the nation’s health care system to shred the elective options for the sick and elderly, why one would champion Mao, Che, Fidel (all seen as comrades in arms, not as brutal dictators).

It explains Van Jones, it explains Mike Klonsky, it explains William Ayers. And Frank Marshall Davis.

It explains the New Party.

It explains the comment about “not being proud”, it explains the comment about “bitter clingers”.

It explains the reaction to the Gates altercation with the police and it explains the Ft Hood and Detroit Nigerian Nightmare situation reaction…such as it was.

It explains the flag pin as the “wrong kind of patriotism,” and the no hand over the heart for the Pledge of Allegiance.

It explains the Apology Tour and the deep bows to Arab princes.

What it doesn’t explain, is how 80% of the country allowed our culture to be swarmed by the pervasive effects of this in every corner where we disseminate our information and form our opinions and get our facts.

Monday, 28 December 2009

Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents...

American officials agreed to send the two terrorists from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an “art therapy rehabilitation program” and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials.

Sunday, 27 December 2009

The system is designed to inconvenience as many people as possible in the worst way possible, without looking for specific threats (i.e. profiling). After all, it would have gone against the system to search a young Nigerian Muslim with known terrorist ties any more carefully than they would search your 90 year old WWII vet grampa.

The traveling public is very, very safe in this air environment. And while we continue to investigate the source of this incident, I think the traveling public should be confident in what we are doing now...

And one thing I’d like to point out is that the system worked.

Hey, if a “working” system means they’re going to leave everything up to the passengers, how about doing away with all the security theater?

I remember... Democratic political consultant Chris Kofinis summing up President Obama’s inaugural speech thusly: “I’m gonna tell you the truth,” and [characterizing it as] a rebuke of “the last eight years” -- of presumably “not telling us the truth.”

[1] in a post with the incredible subhead: “When someone from Nigeria named Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab is lighting his pants in the window seat, it’s pretty hard to be politically correct and avoid reality,” written by somebody apparantly unfamiliar with our Enlightened Establishment. Rest assured, when it comes to being politically correct and avoiding reality, they’ll manage to find a way.

Saturday, 26 December 2009

JOHNSTOWN [December 22, 2009] — U.S. Rep. John Murtha [Democrat chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee] told reporters Tuesday that he isn’t convinced al-Qaida is still a threat to national security....“I don’t agree there is a threat to national security,” Murtha said, while not ruling out the possibility that he could be wrong about al-Qaida’s influence. “They keep saying they’ve defeated al-Qaida.”

Wednesday, 23 December 2009

Why let a holiday season come between the White House and making some political statements? The White House pegged controversial designer Simon Doonan to oversee the Christmas decorations for the White House. Mr. Doonan, who is creative director of Barney’s New York has often caused a stir with his design choices... For this year’s White House, he didn’t disappoint.

Friday, 18 December 2009

Seven metres. That is how much global water levels will rise if the ice in Greenland melts. In connection with the climate meating, sculptor Jens Galschioet has hung flashing red lights seven metres up in trees and on lamp posts throughout Copenhagen.

The idea was to illustrate a prospective water level rise if the ice melts away in Greenland. Yet, somewhere along the line, he made a few incorrect calculations.

‘Technically and pedagogically it is a sound idea. The problem is that they are hanging at incorrect heights by the city lakes, where they currently sit at 11.34 metres’, said architect Ole Oerslev.

The city lakes are already 5.89 metres above sea level, so the flashing lights should have been put up at 69 centimetres height.

‘The rest of the lights put up around the city and out by the Bella Center are in the correct elevation.

We wanted to display something downtown as well and even though we knew that the lights should have been at 69 centimetres, we didn’t really feel it looked like much. So we cheated a bit and decided to explain if anyone found out’, explained Galschioet.